no 



THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



from becoming priest as well as king — indeed, the "great king" 

 was often, at the same time, the great high priest. 



Nebncliadnezzar also added to the splendonr of this great 

 fane, the type and token of Babylon's greatness. All kinds of 

 precious things were offered by him in E-sagila, the great 

 temple of Belus adjoining on the south. He also " raised the 

 head " of E-temen-an~ki with burnt brick and white-mottled 

 lapis. After relating all he had done for the adornment of 

 Babylon, the great king goes on to say, that " from Du-azaga, 

 the place of the Fates, the shrine of the Fates, as far as Aa- 

 ibur-sabLi"\ the causeway of Babylon, before the gate of my 

 lady (probably Zer-panitum), with small decorated tiles as the 

 procession-street of Merodach he had decorated the path." 



Here Nebuchadnezzar describes the building and restoration 

 of the walls of the city, and then continues : — 



" Aa-ibur-5abu"\ the causeway of Babylon, for the procession street 

 of the great Lord Merodach as a high terrace I filled in, and with 

 small decorated tiles and blocks from a mountain-quarry I per- 

 fected Aa-ibur sahu™ from the Holy Gate as far as Istar-sakipat-tebi- 

 sa Street, for the procession-street of his godhead. And I connected 

 (it) with what my father had made, and beautified the road Istar- 

 sakipat-tcbi-sa." 



Though Nebuchadnezzar's description of his many works at 

 Babylon is somewhat tedious to read, it is really very interesting 

 when taken in connection with the ruins themselves, and there 

 is no doubt that the German explorers of the site of the city 

 will procure for students much more material for comparison as 

 time goes on. 



Although we, in this country, have not done much — at least 

 no account of British excavations has, of late years, been 

 published, as far as my knowledge goes — our kinsmen over the 

 sea, the Americans, have made some most successful researches 

 in Babylonia. The site which they have more especially 

 explored is that known as Niff'er (they say that the word is at 

 present pronounced Noufar), the ancient Nippur (Niffur). This 

 site the Eabbins identified with the Calneh of the tenth chapter 

 of Genesis, which is mentioned after Babel, Erech, and Akkad, 

 as one of the first cities of Nimrod's (i.e., Merodach'sj kingdom. 



Niff'er lies on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, but at a 

 distance of about 30 miles from the present course of that 

 river, on the now waterless canal known as the Shatt-en-Nil, 

 which divides it into two parts. Layard and Loftus give 

 interesting descriptions of the ruin-mounds of this great 

 Babylonian city. It is in the north-east corner of its extensive 



